KBR Digital is a translation, localization, and book services provider based in South Carolina, specializing in titles published within the Amazon ecosystem.
Founded in 2009 by Noga and Alan Sklar, KBR was a pioneer in the Brazilian digital book market. By publishing eBooks before Brazil had established virtual bookstores for digital titles, the company led the way in early eBook adoption and Amazon integration.
In 2014, the couple moved to the United States, where Noga acquired citizenship. Adapting to the new environment, KBR successfully pursued the publication of foreign titles whose translation was sponsored by their countries of origin, including Austria, Switzerland, and Brazil. Meanwhile, Noga established a distinguished career as a professional translator, working with brands such as Harley-Davidson, Pfizer, Mastercard, Microsoft, Amazon, and Circle, among several others.
For her first six years in her new homeland, Noga also dedicated herself to honing her English skills. Upon achieving excellence, she transitioned into writing exclusively in English, while maintaining her critical views and sharp powers of observation. Her latest book, 1000 Days in Gaza, stands as a testament to this mastery.
Today, KBR leverages this extensive history into "KBR Express" — a new proposition designed to transform every writer into a high-level professional, which, at the same time, frees authors from the typical limitations of self-publishing and AI-constricted templates.
KBR's core commitment is to ensure authors retain full control of their work. From selecting specific services to the final "KBR's full-brand experience," authors are supervised by Noga through every step of the KDP publishing process. Furthermore, authors publish using their own accounts, ensuring they retain 100% of their royalties.
Noga Sklar, CEO and chief editor of KBR Digital, is a publisher, editor, book and cover designer, writer, and professional translator. Born in Tiberias, Israel, she lived for many years in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a city she later left to take refuge with her husband, Alan, in a mountain paradise amid the Atlantic Forest.
Her encounter with Alan Sklar gave new impetus to her life and literary career. Based on their online interactions and the emails the couple exchanged, Noga wrote her best-selling novel No Degrees of Separation — a passionate diary described by the writer and psychoanalyst Ana Cecilia Carvalho as a modern Song of Songs.
As an editor and publisher, Noga runs her company with personal care, investing her energy in a growing catalog of more than 250 titles across various segments and several languages.
An American citizen since 2016, Noga lives in South Carolina, and in the last few years, has been dedicating herself to supporting other authors in their quest for literary excellence.
As a native innovator, KBR went beyond book production by creating new ways to advertise them. The publisher was the first to publish an e-book in Brazil and was instrumental in introducing the Kindle to Brazilians. Their video releases made history; some, such as Hierosgamos, achieved record viewership on YouTube. Equally innovative were the "Farras" — a Portuguese term for a boisterous celebration — collective book launches that drove hundreds of potential book buyers into the best bookstores throughout Brazil.
The Farras were not just signing events; they were massive cultural gatherings designed to turn a book release into a high-entertainment experience, celebrating the written word with the intensity of a true festival.
Explore the full collection of KBR releases and events here.
A particularly exciting event for KBR was the publication, in 2008, of Noga's diary of reading James Joyce's Ulysses, O Gozo de Ulysses (in English, "The Joy of Ulysses"). In the book, Noga sort of dismisses the entire body of academic studies, which frightens a lot of people, and treats the book — which took many years of "gathering courage" before she started to read it — as what it really is: A marathon of literary pleasure, fun, and discovery at each page.
According to Nelson Vasconcelos, who reviewed the book for the most important Brazilian newspaper at the time, Jornal do Brasil:
"Noga prescribes Ulysses as a panacea against several maladies of modern times: 'a crisis of thoughtfulness, contagious tediousness, electronic laziness.' Recommended posology: 'a one-time dosage of Ulysses injected in your vein, with no contraindications.'"
As a leading player in the emergent digital landscape in Brazil, KBR produced an abundance of best-sellers. In fact, for the first 100 days of Amazon's presence in the country — with Noga advocating full-time for the Kindle against a wide field of skeptics — KBR gloriously occupied the first 100 positions in the store for an entire month: A feat of historic proportions.
As the market widened, the best-sellers kept coming. On the eve of 2013, the Portuguese edition of Noga's novel, No Degrees of Separation, was the #2 best-seller on Amazon in the Romance category — surpassing even E.L. James’s Fifty Shades trilogy in the rankings.
